Washington Culver

Washington Neighborhood is shaped like a triangle pointing toward Downtown Culver City. Transecting this triangular neighbor in a NNE direction is West Washington Boulevard which is itself bisected by Overland Drive. If you use these as dividing lines it is useful for understanding the different section of the Washington area.

To the northwest, you have about three long blocks of modest middle class homes of the most forgettable variety. At Midway an outdoor shopping area containing all the usual suspects you might expect from a suburban area—a Ralph’s supermarket, a Rite Aid, a Starbucks, all the same boring old suspects. Along Venice in this area you get some more variety in terms of restaurants from a Thai Bang to Café Brasil.

Past Overland, the six solid blocks of apartment complexes are largely part of Palms. But Washington makes one more reach north of West Washington, to claim St. Augustine’s Church and School. The local catholic school is a mainstay in the community, present here since 1926.

South of West Washington and west of Overland, the feel of the neighborhood changes considerably, largely because a large planned group of newer Mission inflected homes (with adobe walls and tiled roofs but shaped more like ranch homes) take up the majority of the area. This section of Washington feels like many of the newer planned communities of upscale tract homes that have mushroomed at the edges of Los Angeles and in Orange County as an effect of urban sprawl and white flight. The streets are clear and lawns well-kept (most likely as a condition of leases and added monthly maintenance fees) in this area.

Past Overland as we move farther east, to the final stretch of Washington, the neighborhood begins to take on more and more of the aspects of the new refurbished downtown. With stylish postmodern looking scaled office buildings popping up the closer you get. But, by far the most prominent aspect of this area is the sprawling campus of Sony Studios. A throw back to Culver City’s historical connection to the film industry, the lot is a landmark onto itself. Surrounding it you will find a couple of dozen peripheral companies, like caterers and casting agents.

Appropriately, at the very tip of Washington’s triangle you come upon the Kirk Douglas Theatre, a renovated art deco style movie theater, now turned into a live theater venue. Quite wonderful!